Researching James Maxwell

Maxwell studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, completing his degree in 1858 with a graduation thesis The Chemistry and Physiology of the Spleen. He worked in London at Brompton Hospital and at the Birmingham General Hospital. He was an elder in the Broad Street Presbyterian Church before being sent to Taiwan by the Presbyterian Church of England (now within the United Reformed Church) in 1864. He donated a small printing press to the church which was later used to print the Taiwan Church News.

On 16 June 1865, at the urging of missionaries H. L. Mackenzie and Carstairs Douglas, he established the first Presbyterian church in Taiwan, this date now celebrated by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan as its anniversary. First his mission centred in the then-capital Taiwan Fu (now Tainan City); in 1868 he moved near Cijin (now part of Kaohsiung) where his work, both medical and missionary, became more welcomed. In early 1872 he advised Canadian Presbyterian missionary pioneer George Leslie Mackay to start his work in northern Taiwan, near Tamsui.

He married Mary Anne Goodall (died January 1918) of Handsworth on 7 April 1868 in Hong Kong. They had two sons, John Preston and James Laidlaw Jnr, both of whom later also became medical missionaries. He retired in London in 1885 where he formed and became the first secretary of the Medical Missionary Association. He and his sons oversaw the construction of Sin-lâu Hospital in Tainan, the first western-style hospital in Taiwan. The younger J. L. Maxwell served in the Tainan hospital from 1900 to 1923, during Taiwan's Japanese era.

With the publication of "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" in 1865, Maxwell demonstrated that electric and magnetic fields travel through space as waves moving at the speed of light. He proposed that light is an undulation in the same medium that is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. The unification of light and electrical phenomena led his prediction of the existence of radio waves. Maxwell is also regarded as a founder of the modern field of electrical engineering.

He helped develop the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, a statistical means of describing aspects of the kinetic theory of gases. He is also known for presenting the first durable colour photograph in 1861 and for his foundational work on analysing the rigidity of rod-and-joint frameworks (trusses) like those in many bridges.

His discoveries helped usher in the era of modern physics, laying the foundation for such fields as special relativity and quantum mechanics. Many physicists regard Maxwell as the 19th-century scientist having the greatest influence on 20th-century physics. His contributions to the science are considered by many to be of the same magnitude as those of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. In the millennium poll—a survey of the 100 most prominent physicists—Maxwell was voted the third greatest physicist of all time, behind only Newton and Einstein. On the centenary of Maxwell's birthday, Einstein described Maxwell's work as the "most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton". Einstein, when he visited the University of Cambridge in 1922, was told by his host that he had done great things because he stood on Newton's shoulders; Einstein replied: "No I don't. I stand on the shoulders of Maxwell."

Born in Glasgow, as the son of Janet Maxwell, née Shaw, and the fruiterer and merchant James Taylor Maxwell, James Shaw Maxwell served his apprenticeship as a printer and lithographer. He worked as a lithographer and journalist, and joined the Liberal Party. He left the Liberals in 1880 in opposition to their local opposition to Irish nationalism, and became a leading supporter of Henry George and an activist in the Scottish Land Restoration League.

Maxwell stood unsuccessfully for Glasgow Blackfriars and Hutchesontown at the 1885 general election. In 1888, he attended the founding meeting of the Scottish Labour Party and was appointed as the first chairman of its executive. Along with most of the organisation's members, he joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) on its formation in 1893, and served as its first Secretary. He stood again in Blackfriars and Hutchesontown at the 1895 general election, this time for the ILP, and again without success. However, he did manage to get elected to Glasgow City Council in 1896. He led a successful campaign for free libraries in the city, and for the opening of museums and art galleries on Sundays, to increase the number of workers able to attend.

Maxwell was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler. In first-class cricket for Somerset he tended to bat low in the batting order, but against Gloucestershire at Bath in 1906, batting at No 10, he made an unbeaten 67, his highest first-class score. In eight matches for Somerset in 1906 his bowling was not successful, but when he returned for two games in 1908 he took five Lancashire wickets for 63 runs in the first innings of the match at Liverpool.

From 1909, Maxwell played regularly as a professional cricketer in South Wales for the Glamorgan side, which was not then of first-class status. He appeared in 52 Minor Counties matches for Glamorgan. As at Somerset, he initially batted low in the batting order, but against Surrey's second eleven in 1910, batting at No 10, he scored 108. Thereafter, he often batted in the middle order. He was successful as a bowler too: for example, against the weak Carmarthenshire side in 1911, he took 13 wickets in the match for 64 runs. In 1912, he played in a single first-class fixture for a South Wales cricket team against the South Africans, top-scoring in the home side's second innings. He played Minor Counties cricket for Glamorgan up to the First World War, but did not reappear after the war.